Becoming a commercially viable artist takes more than talent, drive and commitment. So, we talked to top industry professionals to find out what they look for in artists they would want to work with – then we designed a course to do exactly that. The 4-month intensive Artist Development Programtakes you on a journey to prepare you:

Identity & Positioning – Who are you as an artist? What is unique about you? Why should fans care? Where’s your market? Work with our psychology expert to figure out your “Why” early in the course so you can present your authentic self.

Branding, Style, Photoshoots – Once you know your identity as an artist, it needs to be translated into your brand, your style, your logo, and your colour palette – building up your brand assets. Work with stylists, photographers and graphic designers to understand how to align your “look and feel” with your identity.

Marketing– Once you have your brand assets, you are ready to create your marketing strategy, your website, your social media channels – all aligned to consistently reflect your brand and identity.

Music Business Basics*** – Make sure you understand how to monetize your music through your performances, royalties, distribution, and publishing rights.

Coaching – Work with vocal coaches and performance coaches to ensure what people see on stage is the best possible version of you. Learn how to work with the media and give a great interview. Present your best authentic self with every interaction, both on and off stage.

Video Shoot – Shoot a music video with our Video Production Department to showcase your talent, for use in your promotional materials.

EP Singles– Record a 2-3 song EP of the songs you’ve written during the course, learning specific, studio vocal recording techniques, and working with the instructors and students in our audio production programs.

EPK – Take everything you’ve learned and created so that you can package yourself into an Electronic Press Kit (EPK) to be presented to music industry professionals.

Industry Showcase Finale – The end of this 4-month boot camp culminates in an Industry Showcase. Your success is ultimately up to you – we will prepare, train and coach you for this opportunity to show top industry professionals who you are.

“A program like this could have easily accelerated my career by 10 years!” – Dave Genn (54-40)

Building a successful career as an artist requires surrounding yourself with a great team who understand your vision and identity, and who allow you to do what only you can do – be the artist! Our goal with this course is not to launch your career in four months, it’s to help you build your perfect team that will build a commercially viable brand. You will work on recordings, photoshoots and videos, not as your final package, but as training for building your own brand and identity. Ultimately, you need to walk through the doors that are opened – on your own merit.

Of course, learning all of these things in your own time is possible. Our commitment is to provide the tools to find your version of success as efficiently as possible.

***In four months, there just isn’t time to teach you everything. This course complements our other courses like Music Industry (creating a Career Development Plan), or our Audio programs (if you want to learn to engineer and produce your own music), or our Video program, (if you want to learn to create your own videos for broadcast or social media).

The Artist Development Program will commence August 28, 2017 for the Fall Intake. Applications are now open!

How to Apply:

The application process for our Artist Development Program is a bit different than for our other courses. Here’s how it works:

Pre-Application Form– complete the form below. We want to know what you have already been doing, what has worked, and where your roadblocks are. How many songs have you written? How often do you perform? What have you been doing on social media? We want to know it all.Audition – If we select you from your pre-application, you will need to audition in front of a panel of Nimbus and industry professionals. We want to know not only do you have passion and talent, we want to find out if you have “it”.Formal Application– If you are selected from your audition, you will be invited to submit a formal application to attend Nimbus for the Artist Development Program.

Nimbus is a Designated Learning Institution with the Private Training Institutes Branch of the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, StudentAid BC and Canada Immigration and Citizenship. As such, Canadian Citizens can apply for student loan funding, and international students can apply for a study permit.

Located in beautiful, Vancouver, BC, Canada Nimbus School of Recording & Media (formerly Nimbus School of Recording Arts) is the elite music and media school offering small class sizes, mentorship from industry experts, hands-on training, and 24/7 access to our professional studios. Nimbus was co-founded by renowned music producers Bob Ezrin and GGGarth Richardson. All of our courses are taught by current industry professionals. We offer diploma and certificate programs in: audio engineering, music production, video production, post & game audio, live sound and music industry entrepreneurship. Nimbus helps students create their future in music and media.